Mentaiko Salmon Ochazuke

This dish is immensely satisfying. Especially to the Chinese in me. It is a bowl that has the perfect combination of protein, carbs, savouriness (if there's such a word as this), omega-3 and creaminess. Ochazuke refers to a simple Japanese dish of rice that's poured with tea, hot water or hot soup. In this case, I used hot miso soup. You can easily substitute the miso soup with hot green tea if you do not have miso paste. The recipe below serves 4 pax.

Boil 2 bowls of water and add in the miso paste. When the soup comes to a boil, cook the enoki mushrooms. Take it out once it's cooked and set it aside. I do this because I want to be able to split the enoki mushrooms evenly into 4 bowls.

Pan fry the garlic until it is golden brown. Take it out from the pan and set aside.

In the pan with the garlic oil, pan fry the salmon belly slices.

Scrape out the mentaiko from the sac using a spoon or a butter knife.

In a large bowl, put the rice at the bottom followed by the salmon slices. Then scoop out the soft boiled egg on top of the fish. It doesn't matter if you accidentally crack the yolk, like what I've done. It would be more of an experience for the person eating to crack it himself/herself but alas...

On top of the egg, add the mentaiko and fried garlic. Put the piece of nori at the side. You can shred this if you like.

Pour the soup from the side of the bowl. This is easier with a teapot or a small ladle.

If you noticed, I didn't use any salt in the dish because the mentaiko and miso soup are salty enough. However, if you're using green tea instead of miso soup, you might want to marinate the salmon with a bit of soy sauce.